Divito Christopher B, Underhill Suzanne M
Center for Neuroscience, Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, United States.
Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, United States.
Neurochem Int. 2014 Jul;73:172-80. doi: 10.1016/j.neuint.2013.12.008. Epub 2014 Jan 10.
Excitatory amino acid transporters or EAATs are the major transport mechanism for extracellular glutamate in the nervous system. This family of five carriers not only displays an impressive ability to regulate ambient extracellular glu concentrations but also regulate the temporal and spatial profile of glu after vesicular release. This dynamic form of regulation mediates several characteristic of synaptic, perisynaptic, and spillover activation of ionotropic and metabotropic receptors. EAATs function through a secondary active, electrogenic process but also possess a thermodynamically uncoupled ligand gated anion channel activity, both of which have been demonstrated to play a role in regulation of cellular activity. This review will highlight the inception of EAATs as a focus of research, the transport and channel functionality of the carriers, and then describe how these properties are used to regulate glutamatergic neurotransmission.
兴奋性氨基酸转运体（EAATs）是神经系统中细胞外谷氨酸的主要转运机制。这个由五个载体组成的家族不仅在调节细胞外谷氨酸（Glu）的环境浓度方面表现出惊人的能力，还能调节囊泡释放后Glu的时空分布。这种动态调节形式介导了离子型和代谢型受体的突触、突触周围和溢出激活的几个特征。EAATs通过继发性主动电生过程发挥作用，但也具有热力学上解偶联的配体门控阴离子通道活性，这两种活性都已被证明在细胞活性调节中发挥作用。本综述将重点介绍EAATs作为研究重点的起源、载体的转运和通道功能，然后描述这些特性如何用于调节谷氨酸能神经传递。
